Solid Gold Calendar on Display in Tokyo Shop

A calendar for 2008 made of pure gold was unveiled at Tanaka Kikinzoku Jewelry K.K.'s flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza district Thursday.

Tanaka Kikinzoku will begin taking orders for the ¥30 million ($257,000) calendar on Friday. Last year, it sold a similar 2007 calendar for ¥20.07 million ($171,000).

The calendar measures 67 cm by 42 cm and weighs about 6 kg. On the back of the calendar are printed images from the picture scroll of the "Tale of Genji," a classic Japanese literary work that marks its 1,000th anniversary next year.

the markup for this thing is ridiculous. by my calculations the money value of the gold is about 150k so basically they're charging 100k per calender to roll the metal into a sheet and then print some crud on top of it. Surely someone else could do the same for half the premium?

They actually did explain the reason behind the pricing. Here's a quote from Japan Times:

The jewelry dealer initially planned to put a ¥20.08 million ($170,000) price tag on the new calendar, but soaring gold prices have forced it to raise the price. The ¥30 million ($257,000) price tag reflects "recent strong demand for gold and soaring prices," a company official said.